THE FARM 3

[Tad]

moving loads of palms around to be set out for planting.

[Tad]

looking from the spillway after we installed some of the big washies

[Pivi]

Tad tell me please, all this tarrain what is it gonna be?

[Tad]

pivi, it's a private residence.

[Pivi]

oh..ok..

I thought it is some sort of business project...

[PalmGuyWC]

Tad,

I haven't seen any silver Chamarops (cerifera) and they are just as, or more silver than the Serenoa.  They also grow about 3 times faster and are just about as cold hardy.

Dick

[Tad]

I am sorry you have never seen them dick, maybe if you got out more?

[Tad]

I doubt David is done landscaping, the entire project is just huge, I am sure he will add more as he goes along, I just didnt have any for sale at the current time.

[PalmGuyWC]

I meant I had not seen any at David's place. Believe it or not, I do crawl out of my hole sometimes. I have two nice cerifera in the ground and one in a large pot.  They make nice patio palms. The two in the ground have grown surprisingly fast. I'm surprised I haven't seen any in the general nursery trade in N. Calif.

Dick

[Exotic Life]

Fantastic work guy's i love too that work

Robbin

[_Keith]

Tad, where ya at, dude?   I need some farm.

[Tad]

5000 new olive cuttings.

upon arriaval we unpack them, and set them up to soak in a solution of water and rooting hormone.

they are removed....wounded, re bundled and left to soak over night.

[Tad]

perlite beds ready for olive cuttings

[Tad]

previous batchh rooted into 38 ct cells, planted the first weeks of february, already showing root progression out to the side of the pot.

[Tad]

I will bring you some more palm pics, new load going to el paso here in a day or two.

[Tad]

the prop house, is 90% fineshed still waiting on drops and mist heads for 2 tables, landscaping also needs to be taken care of.

[Tad]

sun sensor mounted, this controlls the phytotronics box in place of a 24 hour timer clock

[Tad]

cuttings in perlite

[Tad]

mister heads action shot

[Tad]

agaves waiting to root out a little before heading off to nursery in california.

[Tad]

3000 olives in gallons tagged by batch number, bar codes and everything just like a real nursery

[Tad]

kinda sad when the tags bigger than the tree, oh well not for long tho!

[Tad]

little fridge stocked up for the month

yes, I know these things are really bad for a person, but I am hooked to the gills and dont want to quit!

[PalmGuyWC]

Tad,

Your propigation of Olives spured me to do a little research on them. Apparently there are thousands of cultivars of Olives, and I think you said your cuttings came from Israel. The literature says var. Barnea is the most popular one grown in Israel. I'm wondering if that's the variety you are propigating? Also, are they being used as ornimentals or for fruit production? The literature also states that they are hardy down to 16F (-9C) and will survive 14F (-10C) with damage.

My next door neighbor has a large Olive (that I wish weren't there) and they are always germinating on my property and they come all over. I'm constantly pulling them out.

Also, concerning Agaves, and as I'm sure you are aware, they have recently become very "trendy" plants to have. They are featured in several garden magazines, even as indoor plants. In colder climates they can be grown outside in the summer and brought inside in the winter. Some of the rarer ones are worth a lot of money. Many are cold hardy enough to be grown in Dallas and San Antonio.

I've been growing some for the last few years (that were given to me, and some I bought) and, they produce pups like crazy and are easy to propigate. I was told a couple of the cultivars that were given to me bring prices of $200 for a small pup. It seems the vearigated ones that grow small are the most popular, but there are others that are just as rare and valueable. I wonder if you have thought about growing any of these?

Dick

[Tad]

Dick, i have a small shipment coming in from india the middle of the month, varigated quadricolors, nothing rare just regular run of the mill, It is hard to run an operationon rare and unusual, you need to have commercial and large quantity to keep the wheels greased.

[Tad]

we grabbed two sagos this morning, home owner wanted them "cut down" so we obliged

[Tad]

the second is pretty ugly, it was used as a teaser for the sale which just happened

[Tad]

loading out the 1st one

[Tad]

up on the trailer

[Tad]

number 2 toss it on lets get outta here

[Tad]

fill in and put the area to grade,

[Tad]

load up and head home, sold them to a customer as they were coming in the gate, cheap to thanks to whoever brought the asian infestation in a few years ago the big single wouldve brought in close to a thousand, today 300.00 get it gone, before the little rascals jump on it!!

everybody thinks the usda and state ag depts are protecting them, they are wrong and those two unoits of government don't even care about what goes on!

[PalmGuyWC]

Tad,

You obviously didn't read the thread about coffee grounds. They protect Cycas from the nasty little critters. You should read it. It's cheap, scientifically proven, and effective.

Dick

[Tad]

Dick get me enough coffe grounds for 65 acres.

[Xavierdlc61887]

(palmotrafficante @ Mar. 06 2008,14:28)

QUOTE

Dick get me enough coffe grounds for 65 acres.

BAHAHAHAHA WHEN THEY GET THE COFFEE GROUNDS AND U HAVE A PIC SEND IT TO ME

[PalmGuyWC]

Tad,

Now come on............you don't have 65 acres of cycads.....Take the time to read the thread on coffee grounds, and make sure you read the attachments to the thread. I've come to be a believer after reading the articles, and there are some pretty knowlegable people who have put their reputations on the line. Surely there must be a Starbucks somewhere around you? Make sure you read the attachments to the thread.

Dick

[Tad]

65 acres of palms and cycads in field production on 3 farms to date, the scale gets on med fans and robellinis to !

[PalmGuyWC]

Well.......

I didn't know it affected palms too, but this discussion prompeted me to visit my local Starbucks, which is 5 minutes away and right next to my local grocery store. There is also another smaller Starbucks in the grocery store.

They had neatly packaged foil bags of coffee grounds for the taking just outside the door. I picked up two, and must have been 10 lbs. I figgure 3 visits to the grocery store a week, that would be 30 lbs.

I guess for a large scale opperation like you have, it wouldn't be practicle, but for a small home gardener, it would work. Why don't you test it on 3 or 4 cycads and see how it works.....just for the hell of it. You could always recommend it to your customers who don't have 65 acres to contend with.

I would kill to get those beautiful specimens of cycads you are practically giving away. They would be much more in California. I was at a S. Calif. nursery recently, and they had a boxed speciman Cycas revoluta with branching trunks, supposedly 100 yrs old.......and priced at 42 K.  I fainted.

Dick

[Pivi]

Here on the island one was sold few months ago from a private garden for US$ 2250.

It was about that size on post 588 or sligtly smaller.

[Alicehunter2000]

Tad, please visit my thread on bracing W. robusta's and give me some good advice. I know you have done this hundreds if not thousands of times. I promise to never buy into a monster hog story again